Losing the Weights

We are obsessed with weight loss.  Seriously, how many products are now available to “melt the pounds away”? We seem to equate a slimmer us with a stronger self esteem, a brighter outlook on life and, all in all, a more promising future.  Do we ever take the time to consider the other weights in our lives?  The ones we can’t drop in the gym. Those invisible weights that secretly scar our self image, overshadow our outlook, fill us with fear, and spoil our spirituality.  Yeah—those weights.

 It doesn’t take much effort to find people that are weighted down. For many of us it is a quick look in the mirror.  Life often hands us lemons and those tart experiences have built up until we are carrying scores of emotional pounds named guilt, grief, bitterness, hurt, fear, and failure.  Our hearts all bear the scars of previous wounds. They hurt. They irritate. They deprive us of peace.  Ultimately, they keep us from the fantastically freeing adventure of a lifetime of enthusiastic abandonment to God.

The author of Hebrews knew about those weights.  In Hebrews 12:1 he writes, “…let us lay aside every weight, and…run with patience the race that is set before us” (KJV).  Oh, yeah, he knew about the weights.  Those sneaky things Satan throws up to us don’t immediately stop our forward momentum but they slow it a little at a time.  The guilt of a past indiscretion. The hurt of an endured misdeed. The shadow of a past failure.  One by one they come to mind.  One by one they pile on.  And, one by one, our steps slow.  Our race lane becomes crowded with weights to the point we can no longer run unless we throw them all to the side. 

And we must. It’s impossible to finish the race while carrying the weights.  We have to stop allowing the guilt of past failures—both our own and others—to entrench us in bitter grief and bury us in hurt and fear. The weights don’t make us stronger, more focused, or less likely to err.  No.  Instead, they hold us back.  They make us vulnerable, weaken our resolve, and create distance between us and Jesus. They must be thrown away. We must give them to God who has no problem throwing them in the dumpster. They belong there.  Though the incidents that forged those weights may have helped create the race before us (and some of its detours), they don’t get to come along for the ride. Your race lane has no cargo space.

So brace yourself and do what it takes to drop the weight.  Forgive-yourself and others.  Accept-both the errors of the past and the forgiveness of God.  Change-leave the weights behind, they don’t enhance your faith, they erode it.  Heal-realize that the scars don’t make you broken, they make you stronger. Don’t pick the weight back up again—ever. Carrying it does you no favors. Don’t let the past keep you from the freedom of your future with God.  Run your race with wild abandon. You are God’s child. Forgiven. Accepted. Healed. Changed. Unencumbered. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently. Run freely.